The present invention relates to a wing construction for winged surface effect vehicles, whereby a plenum is developed in a chamber open in the direction of movement of the vehicle.
Surface effect vehicles are known having single surface wings which form such a plenum chamber and wherein the rear edges of the wing are joint in the rear to establish a triangle. These vehicles have significant efficiency when taking advantage of the surface effect, because lift is produced in two, mutually reinforcing ways. Firstly, lift is produced by the air cushion which develops under the wing in the plenum; secondly, the wing experiences a speed dependent aerodynamic lift.
A particularly known craft has a reversed delta wing, wherein the plenum is established by a negative V and is closed by the rear edges of the wing with respect to the mirror image of the wing. However, it was found that the thus predetermined and fixed wing geometry is or can be optimized for a particular operational state and flight condition only. Different velocities of the craft, particularly when flying close to ground, result in less than optimum states. Accordingly, the front of the craft has to be lowered for higher speeds to maintain the surface effect effective. Since the rear of the wing is lifted, the plenum is opened to some extent in that the rear edges of the wing remain no longer parallel to the mirror image of the craft. The lift is, therefore, reduced and, most importantly, the stability of the craft deteriorates. Another deficiency of a fixed wing geometry is to be seen in the fact that matching the craft to optimum conditions for takeoff and landing over water is not possible.